Dan Mullen couldn’t help himself.

After all, the “Dan Mullen Bowl” was being played out on Saturday afternoon in Starkville, as a struggling Florida program played a struggling Mississippi State program in a Week 4 battle. Mullen is now safely behind a microphone as a college football analyst for ESPN, so he currently can’t lose any games.

But before leaving coaching — for now, at least — the 52-year-old Mullen was the head coach at Florida from 2018-21, and before he coached at Florida, Mullen was the head coach at Mississippi State from 2009-17.

So, Saturday’s SEC tilt gave Mullen an interesting vantage point, since it matched the 2 programs that he led over the past 15 years. Then when the answer to the Aflac trivia question was posted during the game, it caught Mullen’s particular attention. The question: When was the last time Florida and Mississippi State finished a season with double-digit wins?

The answer, as you might have guessed, directly involved Mullen. The Bulldogs’ last double-digit win season came all the way back in 2014, when they went 10-3 under Mullen. And the Gators? Well, the last time UF managed double-digit wins was 5 years ago, an eternity in Gainesville, when the Gators went 11-2 in 2019 under, yep, Mullen.

When the answer to the question was tweeted out, Mullen naturally reposted the tweet.

And it wasn’t the first time this season a subtle retweet sent some major shade the Gators’ way.

Florida entered Saturday’s contest at 1-2 on the season, putting the future of Billy Napier very much up in the air. Florida held a lead going into the fourth quarter.